Gia - session 335 - schooling at a show!

 I took Gia to the Cool Breeze Hunter show today.  The first chance I had, I pulled her off the trailer to lunge her.  She was definitely nervous about her surroundings, especially since this is a show she has only been to once before.  Once she relaxed, I tied her to the trailer to hang out for a little bit.  She was a little naughty after a while, so I had to put her back on the trailer (where she was still kicking out with her left hind leg).

Later, I was able to lunge her again, this time in the show ring during a break. She was nervous about all the new stuff to look at in the arena, but eventually relaxed, and seemed good enough that I took her back to the trailer to tack her up to ride.

Under saddle, she was AMAZING!  She started out quite nervous, as I expected.  I put her on circles and figure 8's, bending and leg yielding, just like we do at CDP and at home.  Eventually, she realized it wasn't so bad, and I even felt her pull me towards one of the jumps.  It was set up to about 2'3", but it was pretty plain, so I lined her up to it the next time, and she went right over it!  We did that a few times, and even cantered off a couple of times.  I decided to try another jump that was a little smaller, but had lots of colorful flowers.  She took it quite big, but she took it!  We were getting brave, so I tried another jump, set at 2'3", but with a gate and flowers - no problems there!  Next, we attempted a jump that was decorated with a couple of small flags that were waving about.  I truly didn't expect her to actually go over it, but it was NO PROBLEM!!  Finally, we attempted a jump that had a large box under it.  She went over it in one direction, although quite large, but stopped at it in the other direction.  I let her take a look at it, then brought her back to it, and she went right over it! 

We did each jump a few times.  The first time, she took each jump a bit large, but the next few times, she jumped them all lower.  She cantered after a few of them, so I schooled her in the canter as well.  She was quite nervous about passing the judge's box at first, and really veered away from it.  By the end, she was cantering right past it, with almost no worry.

I let her finish with a really nice stretchy trot in each direction, and then called it a day.  She stood fairly well for a nice bath from all the show kids when we got back to the trailer, and she stood fairly well when I put her back on the trailer.  Definitely her best day at a show so far!